Wonder Valley, California, in the heart of the Mojave Desert, is a rural community of artists, musicians, and other desert dwellers. Visit the Palms Restaurant, the Glass Outhouse Gallery, and the Wonder Valley Community Center. Visit the beautiful Pinto and Bullion mountains. Minutes from Joshua Tree National Park and the Gateway to the Mojave Preserve.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Where's Heather?

Wonder Valley's own artist, Heather Johnson, is riding her motorcycle to the other end of the Americas. She's made it as far as Puno, Perú.

From Heather:

Puno, Perú10/7/15

Sidelong glances.

Cracked foundations.

Terra-cotta tile roofs underlaid with corrugated tin and blue plastic tarps, covered in used tires that keep it all from blowing away in the storms that blast up over Lake Titicaca and cast down sheet rain and nail-sharp hail pellets, turning the narrow streets into swift two-foot currents.

From the corner room on the third floor of this hospedaje, I can hear a man playing his plastic recorder, badly, with skin-covered stumps for hands. An old guy peddling mysterious chocolate and avocado-colored liquids in clear 5-gallon buckets, serenading their deliciousness in a gravelly, nasal voice. School kids squealing with joy to patriotic Peruvian anthems resembling Nazi death march songs.